Most existing instant messaging systems, such as Yahoo!® Messenger, AOL Instant Messenger (AIM®), IBM® Lotus Sametime, etc., allow users to start a chat session by clicking on a person's screen name (also called a handle, nickname, or nick), as displayed within a buddy list user interface object, and/or located within a directory. In addition, some existing instant messaging systems are embedded in other systems (e.g. IBM® Lotus Notes), such that a user can click on a person's name within an e-mail message entry to start a chat session with that person. A problem with existing systems instant messaging systems is the requirement that a person initiating a chat session must either be able to locate the other person's name in the buddy list, directory, or the like, or the chat initiator must know how to spell the other person's name. This is a problem in the many cases where a user wants to start a chat session quickly, but may not know how to spell the other person's screen name, and the other person's name is not stored in a buddy list, directory, etc., that is conveniently available to the initiating user. The chat initiator must accordingly manually look up the other person's name in an external resource, such as a meeting invitation, document, spreadsheet, Web application, etc. To do so, the initiating user has to first launch an external application first, and then manually copy and paste the other user's screen name or the like into the instant messaging system application before starting the chat session. Moreover, when a user wants to start a group chat session involving multiple other people, the specific set of people desired may not already be organized into an existing group known by the instant messaging system, and may not even be known individually to the instant messaging system. In such a case, the initiating user maybe required to individually enter each desired person in the group into their buddy list. This process requires many steps, and can make starting a group chat session difficult.
In some existing systems (e.g. IBM® Lotus Notes) the user can highlight or select a command (e.g. “Chat with All”) that causes a group session to be initiated with all other users that are recipients of an e-mail message. However, such solutions fail to address the problem of working within a stand-alone instant messaging application in the situation where the other user's screen name is not in the instant messaging system directory.
In other existing systems (e.g. ContactCopy of LoquiSoft), manually highlighted identifiers can be copied into an address book with the click of a button. However, the system still requires that the user add the contacts into an address book before performing useful actions, e.g. before initiating a group chat session.
For the above reasons and others it would be desirable to have a new system that allows a user to conveniently initiate a “transient” instant messaging session without having to add the other participants' names into an address book or the like prior to initiating the session. The new system should advantageously address situations such as when a user is in a group meeting or the like, and needs to send information (e.g. conference meeting information, etc.) quickly to all meeting invitees without having to go into another application that stores the screen names, e-mail addresses, etc. of the desired chat participants.